Bytesforall Bangladesh’s Partha Sarker made a key note presentation at a round-tableorganized by Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC) and Access to Information (A2I) at BCC Auditorium, Dhaka on the 21st of October (Tuesday), 2014. The presentation is available here. The presentation highlighted the conceptual framework of Open Data, what it includes technically and legally, what other countries are doing, what is important to consider, what are the models available, what are the step by step processes involved etc. The round-table also highlighted the need for having areadiness study and a small pilot project of developing a mobile-app based on open data available from any Government agency. This study is likely to see both the demand and supply side of open data spectrum. On the demand side, it is likely to investigate the areas where data is mostly needed, what type of data is frequently accessed by common people and how it affects their lives etc. And on the supply side it would examine the legal framework, availability, accessibility and interoperability of data.

Bytesforall Bangladesh’s Munir Hasan organized a series of Take Back the Tech (TBTT) campaign in seven locations across Bangladesh. The objective of these campaigns was to raise awareness among the university level students (specially female students) about the unreported incidents, consequences and legal remedies to online harassment, privacy infringement. All the campaigns were organized in different educational institutes and were attended by hundreds of female students who raised questions about the remedies, shared their experiences and interacted for a lively session. Bytesforall Bangladesh is working to develop a solution where the incidents could be reported anonymously using cell phone or Internet and can be connected directly to the local authority. Following are the locations and the approximate number of participants who attended these TBTT campaigns.

Shahjalal Science and Technology University in Sylhet, Bangladesh (attended by 200 participants)

Rokeya hall, a dormitory for female students at Dhaka University (attended by 50 participants)

Institute of Education, Dhaka University (attended by 80 students)

Maitri Hall, a dormitory for female students at Dhaka University (attended by 50 students)

RC Majumder auditorium in Dhaka University (attended by more than 100 students)

Chittagong Independednt University (attended by 40 students)

Bangla Academy in conjunction with Anti Corruption Debate Competition (Attended by more than 50 students)

Bytesforall Bangladesh contributed the Bangladesh chapter at Global Information Society Watch Report 2013 on Women Rights, Gender and ICT. It underlined the ICT policies and legal background that reflects gender rights and encourages the use of ICTs. It also showed some case studies of some female victims of online violence and harassment.

On the 12th June, 2013 Bytesforall Bangladesh together with Monthly CNews Magazine (http://www.cnewsvoice.com), Bangladesh Open Source Network (BDOSN – www.bdosn.org) and Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS – http://www.bcs.org.bd/) organized a round-table on Women Rights, Gender and ICT: Issues and Remedies to online harassment at the BCS auditorium in Dhaka and collected inputs on online harassment and privacy infringement. It was attended by more than 40 participants including students, women rights activists, ICT entrepreneurs, journalists, university teachers, NGO activists etc. Partha Sarker of Bytesforall Bangladesh presented the main concept paper in this round-table while the session was moderated by Bytesforall Bangladesh coordinator and BDOSN Secretary General Munir Hasan and was chaired by the President of Bangladesh Women in Technology Luna Shamshudoha.

Bytesforall Bangladesh undertook a research and was faced by the challenge of data unavailability on the topic. So the round-table session was designed to be a stalk-taking session to get updated about possible data, information, case studies and policy interventions. The presentation focused on the extent of women’s participation on the Internet and ICT areas, how they’re being harassed, what are the experience of different women groups, what are the existing policy instruments available, what needs to be improved what recommendations are to be made etc. Then the floor was made open to other participants to share their thoughts, experience and inputs.

Entire round-table information was published at the CNews magazine June issue and is available here. Popular Bangla Daily, Prothom Alo also published a report on the round-table that was published next day.

This report prepared for an international publication ‘Global Mobile’ builds a compelling social and business case for leveraging mobile communication to shape financial access and opportunities for people who may not have traditional banking entitlement. It identifies mobile phone–based financial transactions involving government and public-sector agencies and discusses innovations in foreign remittances, micro-credit, and micro-insurance. Roles and partnerships of stakeholders such as banks, operators, and other third parties are identified and illustrated with numerous case studies from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Recommendations are made for regulators and service providers to increase the reach and utility of mobile financial services. The book is due to come out March, 2013.

Bytesforall Initiative has undertaken an extensive research to map all environment and climate change related policies in Bangladesh and to identify where ICT and access to information can play an important role in order to address the environment sustainability issues. The research indicates that ICT and environment sustainability issues are still not at the policy radar of the Government of Bangladesh is now available through the APC website at:

Bytesforall Initiative has set up an ICT and health network (http://ictforhealth.ning.com) to build community and to undertake research in understanding whether ICTs can play any transformational role in the development, delivery or management of health care services for the poorer of the society. Please join the network and share your thoughts, case studies

Bytesforall Initiative has undertaken a research project to study and analyze the Internet usage pattern, browsing habit and service requirements of Internet users in Dhaka city as per age, income and gender. The research project is expected to fill up an important gap of understanding the Internet users from a social perspective. We expect the outsomes of this research is going to serve advocacy, activism, market or policy interest of different stakeholders in the
country.